Boko Haram-fuelled famine threatens 120,000 Nigerians as Lake Chad crisis deepens, UN warns
At least 120,000 people are facing starvation in northeastern Nigeria due to a "catastrophic" man-made famine caused by the insurgency of Boko Haram terrorists, the UN-agency Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned. The agency also predicted the crisis was likely to deteriorate between June and August. Borno state, Boko Haram's birthplace and the epicentre of the group's seven-year insurgency, is expected to have around 78,000 people living in famine-like condition
Nigeria’s President Orders New Probe Into Chibok Abductions
Boko Haram took the 219 girls in April 2014 Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a new investigationinto the kidnapping of 219 schoolgirls, almost two years after their abduction by Boko Haram. The Islamist extremists took the girls from the northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, inciting a worldwide social media campaignto #BringBackOurGirls that spread awareness about the group and its series of abductions. National Security Adviser Babagana Munguno will name mem
Cameroon suicide attack leaves at least 7 dead
At least seven civilians were killed Friday in a suicide attack in Kolofata, northern Cameroon, a region where Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists are highly active, local officials said. "A suicide bomber went to a place selling doughnuts and blew up," a regional security source told AFP. "We have eight dead at the site, including the bomber," the source said, without stating whether the attacker was male or female. Another source also confirmed details of the attack and gave the
World’s Deadliest? Boko Haram and the Challenge of Quantifying Violence
As French President Francois Hollande decried the so-called Islamic State’s (ISIS)November 13th Paris attacks as an act of war, a conflict of less deadly outcomes was being waged on worldwide social media. Thousands of tweets, Facebook updates, and Instagram posts criticized the disproportionate media coverage and public sympathy the Paris violence evoked—particularly in the West—when comparable acts of mass violence in the developing world failed to garner as much as a solid
The Islamic State West Africa continues to utilize women as suicide bombers
Boko Haram, which now calls itself the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWA), continues to utilize women as suicide bombers in northeastern Nigeria and in neighboring Cameroon. The jihadist group killed three people today in a suicide attack in the town of Mora in northern Cameroon. According to Reuters, a police officer and two civilians were killed after two female suicide bombers detonated themselves in a car close to the town’s stadium. Early reports have indicated
Suicide bombers kill over 30 in Cameroon and Nigeria
A child and a middle-aged woman were deployed as suicide bombers in the Far North Region of Cameroon and in Yobe state in Nigeria over the weekend. The two attacks killed at least 34 people and wounded more than 100 others. No group has yet to take responsibility for the bombings, but the Islamic State’s West Africa province (ISWA), formerly known as Boko Haram, is widely suspected. According to AFP, a 12-year-old girl detonated in a popular and crowded bar in Maroua, Cameroo
Teenage suicide bombers kill more than 20 in northern Cameroon
The Islamic State’s West Africa province (ISWA), formerly known as Boko Haram, killed more than 20 people in a double suicide attack in northern Cameroon that was executed by two teenage girls. The jihadist group has used women and girls of various ages to carry out suicide attacks in Nigeria and Cameroon over the past year. Both ISWA suicide bombers, who attacked a market and an adjoining neighborhood in Maroua, the capital of the Far Northern Region, were under the age of 1
Al Qaeda 2.0 – Boko Haram, Al Shabaab and Extremism in Africa
The kidnapping of more than 300 Nigerian school girls weeks ago – and now word of a new massacre – by Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group that operates in northern Nigeria, has drawn the attention and outrage of the international community. The Obama Administration said Tuesday it plans to send military officials and hostage experts to help deal with the explosive situation. Meanwhile, to the east, another gang of extremists known as al Shabaab have been setting off bombs
Boko Haram: Framing an Islamist Insurgency
The Nigerian government has been engaged in a narrative struggle with Boko Haram in order to win popular support and end the insurgency. The struggle at the narrative level mirrors the struggle at the combat level, with Nigeria possessing significantly greater opportunities, resources, and allies to win the war against Boko Haram. That the war has not ended nearly five years after it first began, suggests that Boko Haram’s narrative strategy connects with northern population
"Boko Haram's Evolving Threat": J. Peter Pham Report for the National Defense Universi
The reemergence of the Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram is cause for significant concern. Since late 2010, the organization has been responsible for a brutal campaign of attacks targeting public officials and institutions and, increasingly, ordinary men, women, and children, wreaking havoc across northern Nigeria. At least 550 people were killed in 115 separate attacks in 2011, a grisly toll that has been accelerating. Meanwhile, Boko Haram’s rhetoric and tactics i
